The Captain’s Recommendations

So I decided to amalgamate all the stuff I use. Again, I follow by if I like it, I’ll recommend it. These are all stuff, brands and programs I use regularly and I know I get good value out of it. If I find them useful, I’m sure you’ll find them useful! I’ll try to link posts from within the site that are relevant to the products so you can see where I’m coming from. There will be affiliate links throughout, so if it leads you to a merch store just know that what you see is what you get and if you do buy I will get some money out of it! More info right over at my affiliates disclosure page.

Finances

These are all programs that I use regularly.

WealthSimple is a nice little program that helps me deal with mutual funds trading automatically thanks to a bot. It’s so easy to set it up so that I can invest automatically! I usually take out a good chunk of change right from my paycheck automatically (which did go into my bank account). Right at the end of the month I will just put whatever is left from my spending (after all, I aim for at least half of my paycheck) right into my investments! They both have an app on iTunes and on Google Play. If you click on my link, you can get your first year free of fees (if you’re Canadian or British), or have $100 invested into your account when you sign on and invest (as an American)!

Mint is a program I use to help keep track of my spending and helps me plan a budget. It has apps in both the iTunes app store and on Google Play. If you’re fine with giving your banking info to Mint, the app will automatically keep track of how much you spent, how much you withdrew and where it’s all going! (Withdrawals are different though, you still need to keep tabs on that) It’s also free and portable! 😀

Blogging and Website Making

Now, I know there are better hosting services out there for cheaper, but there is a website that will teach you how to make money in any niche (a part of the market you focus on)! I found WealthyAfilliate so helpful and it’s chock-full of features and lessons that I found that I got my value’s worth in just the knowledge and the supporting community alone! I built this website just because of WealthyAffiliate and the valuable lessons they gave me. For $49 a month (there is yearly membership, you can get for cheaper), you can learn how to make money with your new online business and it comes with web hosting (25 free domains and 25 owned domains) as well! There are a lot of incentives to be involved in the community and you can make some money on the side. If you’re looking for just pure hosting, I will suggest going somewhere as I feel that the value lies mostly in the lessons, content and the community offered. There is a free membership with a 7-day trial to premium if you want to check this out. You can just do it by yourself with just a free membership, but it is pretty hard if you have no idea what you’re doing. I will make a post about what it takes to blog and to create your website. If you do decide to join and go premium, I will be around to give you any tips and tricks as well as personal coaching from me!

Streaming

Here is the streaming program I use, StreamLabs. I like StreamLabs because it has integrated a lot of widgets, functions, alerts and even a moderation bot right into one program! It is also super easy to use and very intuitive for new users. It even keeps track of whoever followed you, donations and Merch sales (if you have any).

Now, I will also mention this that I stream to all of my channels at once. For that, I use restream.io. It allows me to broadcast to any number of platforms at once! It’s pretty neat when you need to reach more people, which I think is very important when you start. Once you hit Affiliate or Partner on Twitch, you can’t do this anymore…

Surprisingly, I will not recommend Twitch for your streaming platform! It’s over saturated with both viewers and streamers that if you tried to stream there you’re not going to get noticed. It’s best to go on a smaller platform. Here’s two I will recommend. Not only that, once you hit Affiliate or Partner on Twitch, you cannot spread your good content out to multiple platforms (at least, not at once), which is in my opinion, hindering competition and your chance to grow. I’ll provide two better alternatives.

Mixer was my go-to for Streaming. It featured a delay from my game to you, the viewer much faster than what Twitch could offer! It’s almost instantaneous! You could also earn in-site currency to interact with the streamer in a more fun way. They recently introduced a paid currency where you can support your favorite streamers on the platform. The problem is there’s a very large gap between a normal streamer, and partners and most of the cool perks go to partners anyway, unless you decide to buy into Mixer Pro, which is Microsoft’s answer to Twitch’s Twitch Prime. Microsoft is building this platform rather nicely and has its nice niche to Xbox players, allowing them to stream directly from their XboxOne consoles.

DLive is my new home now. I just found about this site after some scouring and I found out that they have some pretty neat features. One they pay you, the viewer just for watching people stream! Not only that, you can receive a bonus just for streaming content (7 days after you stream) and for participating in a pool with other people when you lock your points into DLive. Locking in points mean that you receive 9.9% of your share (your points / total points locked in) of all gift transactions done. They do this by using a BlockChain currency called LINO to do all of their points handling. They’re still pretty new, but they are growing pretty fast! The community is really nice and welcoming as well!

The good news is that both Mixer and DLive has partnership programs that are not exclusive to the platform you are streaming on. They want you to grow and spread, and in return you direct more users to use them! I like this approach and this is why I refer them to anyone wanting a change out of Twitch.

Communications

Discord is my go to for all communications. Hell, I used it for my thesis project! Anyway, Discord has a text and a voice channel all in one and is very versatile in emojis, pictures, links and media you send. There is separation of voice channels and text channels so you can even view it at work on your phone while you’re on break. You can download the desktop app, any of the mobile apps, or just use it in-browser! (In fact, just clicking on my link will put you in the chat once you log in or sign up!) This is the perfect communications service if you want to set up a community.

Where I buy Stuff

So I’m just going to separate where I buy stuff online (usually). Probably easier that way.

Games

Steam is my go to for all my PC games. It has the largest library of games to pick from and they usually inform you when there’s a sale to take advantage of. Of course there’s some publishers/developers who aren’t on there but usually that’s solved by doing a bit of searching. It’s also the platform to play your PC games on once you have downloaded them. I think that’s a huge plus.

Now, if you’re really looking for deals, I always stick by Humble Bundle. I always find out that there’s good deals from them like free games and awesome bundle packs for us geeks. There are Dungeon and Dragons packages, programmer’s packages, comics and even video editing! Not only that you can also choose to support a charity or your favorite creator! (Thank you if you do. ;))

I just recently came across Fanatical advertising a bundle I could get for less. I did a bit more digging and needless to say, they are very consistent in what they do. They dedicated to giving us the best deals for our PC games and all of them are licensed too! I often check what they’re offering and they put a smile on my face; cheap games baby!

Accessories and other things

If I can’t find good deals on hardware or accessories that I want, console gaming stuff or even stuff not related to gaming, I almost always end up going to Amazon. It’s the online Wal-Mart, as I would like to say. There’s not much I can say but they have a huge catalog of stuff you can buy from. Amazon Prime might be worth it if you buy your necessities online and quite regularly. I haven’t made the switch yet, especially since I don’t have a car or a trailer to help lug all of my stuff down whenever I go do a haul. Still for one time online purchases, this is pretty good.

And there you have it folks! Most of the stuff that I use and will recommend here! I’ll update this page regularly as time goes on, but don’t expect a huge list of things. Anyway, if you decide to click on the links, I appreciate you clicking on them! I hope you find this useful.